The Troublemaker: The Russians are coming and have bought the Tories

The level of confusion over what actually happened is matched by the level of bluster over the nerve agent attack on British spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

But the Tories have quietly been taking fortunes from Russians, both pro and anti Putin, in recent years.

Theresa May promised to distance her party from Russian donors when she took office. But oligarchs and their associates have registered donations of £826,100 to the Tories since Theresa May became prime minister.

The Tories have received more than £3 million from Russian billionaires and lobbyists for Moscow since their return to government in 2010.

One Russian donor paid the Tories more in a year under May than in six years under Cameron.

Banker Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of a former Putin minister, handed the party £253,950 in the year to September 2017.

One of the key pieces of evidence is understood to be a secret recording.

Lady Judge said, “Although I strongly object to the breach of trust arising from the secret recording of a private conversation, I accept that the language used when discussing the employment situation of individuals with protected characteristics was not of the modern standard.

“I deeply regret the language I used and apologise if this caused any distress or upset.”

But the New York-born ex-merchant banker “strongly refutes” the allegations and blasted “flaws” in the probe.

Hard-hitting news—Kate Middleton’s fingers might be all the same length.

Or at least the Daily Mail thought so, even printing an image of Kate’s fingers—with a box around them to doubly make sure—so everyone could see for themselves that they were shockingly different sizes.

Tory travel is expensive

By contrast, he’s made just 11 expenses claims for rail travel to the value of £94.30.

Grayling didn’t register a single claim for a journey on public transport between January 2014 and January 2018. Over the same period, he claimed £610.65 for 96 journeys by car.

The last time Grayling registered a journey on public transport was November 2013—a return ticket between his constituency and Westminster.

Twelve members of the Tory cabinet have claimed more in expenses for journeys made on public transport in the past year alone than Grayling has since 2010.

We can only presume he likes to pay his own public transport costs.

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